While planning the twenty-year reunion, Dan has the idea of convincing Oliver Lawless, the most popular guy in his graduating class (and now a TV-commercial celebrity) to return, thinking that this will make people want to attend.

On February 10, 2014, it was announced that Jack Black and James Marsden would star in a comedy film, directing debut of Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel, which Black's Electric Dynamite produced with Mike White's RipCord Productions and Ben Latham-Jones and Barnaby Thompson of Ealing Studios.

Shortly after, IFC Films acquired U.S. distribution rights for $3 million in a bidding war against studios including Lionsgate, Fox Searchlight, Broad Green Pictures and Alchemy.

[14] In its second weekend, the film was pulled from 847 screens, and its weekend-to-weekend gross fell 96.5%, as it only earned $15,714 ($97 per theater).

The site's consensus reads, "The D Train offers Jack Black a too-rare opportunity to showcase his range, but its story and characters are too sloppily conceived to hold together as a film.